Background: The consistent success of breast augmentation over the past five decades has been because of the stable volume provided by an implant. But breast implants are not perfect, are prone to failure and need to be replaced over one’s lifetime, For these reasons some women understandably would prefer a more natural breast augmentation method.
Increasing soft tissue volume by fat injection is now widely used for many face and body areas. The breast has not been excluded in the growing world of fat transplantation and, in conjunction with the buttocks, is the commonly fat injected area of the trunk for both aesthetic and reconstructive purposes.
While the appeal of fat graft augmentation is high for the breast, very few women actually qualify for it. Between limited or inadequate fat donor sites and the desire for breast augmentation size increases beyond what fat grafting can achieve, the number of women who undergo fat injection breast augmentation by fat injection is 1% or less of all women who undergo breast augmentation surgery.
Case Study: This 19 year-old female was bothered by some modest fullness of her abdomen and flanks and the small size of her breasts. While she did not want breast implants, she was interested in whatever breast size increase she could get by recycling her undesired fat from the abdomen and flanks to the breasts.
Under general anesthesia, her abdomen and flanks was harvested of 925cc of fat using a power-assisted liposuction device. The fat was processed by filtering and washing for a total concentrate of 360ccs. The breasts were injected with 180ccs per side.
When seen at three months after surgery, her breasts showed a very modest sustained size increase of about a 1/2 cup per breast. Her result is not equivalent to a 180cc breast implant due to some partial fat absorption.
Fat injection breast augmentation (FIBA) is always a gamble as the result is limited by both donor site availability and fat survival/retention. It is a procedure for those women whose greatest priority is on fat reduction body contouring and any secondary gain they can get in breast size increase.
Highlights:
1) Fat injection breast augmentation (FIBA) can produce a visible but modest increase in breast size.
2) The amount of fat that can be successfully added to the breasts is a function of how much fat one has to harvest and how much fat survives the transfer process.
3) The final breast volume obtained by fat transfer will be far less than what is extracted by liposuction.
Dr. Barry Eppley
Indianapolis, Indiana